How Virtual Fitness Became the New Normal
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For digital natives, virtual fitness is beyond an emerging trend. It’s the new normal. Everyone from The New York Times to USA Today have covered the phenomenon. Twitter and Instagram feeds are full of at-home fitness selfies, Peloton rides, and Zoom yoga sessions. But how did we get here?
Let’s back up a bit and review the timeline of fitness products and services.
It’s helpful to remember that at-home fitness is nothing new. People have been working out at home since the days of Jack LaLanne, who used the then-burgeoning medium of television to beam fitness content into people’s homes. Jack brought fitness into the home, but it was the only fitness option on the TV.
Then Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, and many others perfected the business of “fitness celebrity.” They used the new VHS format to bring you fitness content. Jane Fonda’s Workout became the highest selling home video for years, selling over a million copies. The video’s release helped drive the adoption of the then-new VCR. This increased the variety of fitness content available to consumers, but it quickly became dated and stale. It’s tough to form a good habit when you have to buy a new VHS tape every 6 months.
Next came cable TV and the infomercials for BowFlex and countless other devices that promised to transform your body in 20 easy payments. These were the dark times. These devices didn’t work, were too expensive, and came mostly without professional instruction. Within a week or two of being purchased, most devices began a career of dust gathering.
Starting in the 1990’s, there began a proliferation of branded fitness disciplines like CrossFit as well as a host of brick-and-mortar fitness companies and experiences like Equinox, Soul Cycle and Barry’s, for example. This expanded people’s access to a variety of fitness experiences. Unfortunately, getting to and from a gym is time consuming, and gym memberships are expensive. And many consumers are uncomfortable in a gym environment. Nevertheless, consumers flocked to big-box gym brands because it was the best option at the time.
Then came the iPhone, and with the iPhone came the fitness apps. So many fitness apps. Many are great. Most are not. They are generally canned, solo experiences that don’t offer the value that group fitness and personal training do. MyFitnessPal was an early winner in the space. Lately, apps like Aaptiv are on the rise and showing significant innovation.
Next came the first generation of wearables. FitBit made it possible to connect your body to your phone and get real-time feedback and help track your progress, or lack thereof, over time. This segment too continues with new innovations including Whoop, a new personal fitness tracker that is gaining steam. These devices provide more and more granular, personalized data making the solo experience many apps into a more compelling experience.
Then came the latest generation of connected hardware including Peloton, Mirror, and Tonal. Peloton in particular has proven conclusively that people want an at-home workout experience and will pay handsomely for it. Customers gobbled up the Peloton and have now become accustomed to Peloton-style interactive fitness. Also, a handful of trainers on Peloton have become virtual celebrities. The problem is, these devices are too expensive for most. And, if you’re not into spinning, a Peloton doesn’t help much.
Meanwhile, throughout the 2010s, there were a few pioneering trainers that were experimenting with “virtual fitness.” They were experimenting with delivering personal training and group fitness like Yoga, Pilates, Barre, HIIT, and Kettlebell, via video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Facetime, Twitch, Vimeo, and others. They were on to something new and exciting and had begun getting initial traction among their customers.
And then Covid happened and everything changed. Social distancing meant trainers were out of work and their customers were stuck at home. Brick-and-mortar businesses were closing, many laying off employees. This forced trainers to seek out new options. In addition to the platforms mentioned above, many adopted Zoom, in particular, to deliver their services, now in a completely virtual, digital environment.
And what have they discovered? Many trainers learned that they could get more customers and make more money. Now that their class size isn’t capped by the size of the room, their revenue potential is essentially unlimited. And their customers? Customers found out that virtual fitness via Zoom and other platforms is in many ways better than the alternatives. It’s cheaper, easier, offers more variety, and a more motivating experience than the incumbents listed above.
Now, virtual fitness is the new normal. Thousands of fitness pros are experimenting with Zoom and other live video platforms, many attracting 100s of attendees per class. Peloton recorded its most attended live spin class of all time with 23,000 concurrent attendees. Incumbents like ClassPass and Equinox are struggling to pivot to this new world. And dozens of startups are trying to leverage the clear shift in user behavior and preference.
What will all of this look like in 5 years? We’ll dig into that in the coming weeks.
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Salut is a new social video platform for fitness. Sign up for early access.
